| Directors' Duty of Care |
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| The duty of care requires a director to make business decisions in the best interests of the corporation in good faith, with due diligence, and with the skill and judgment of an ordinary person under the circumstances. Claims for breach of the duty of care that involve a failure to act typically allege that directors did not adequately supervise corporate executives or key employees. More... |
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| Securities Trading Halts, Delays, and Suspensions |
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| The Securities and Exchange Commission may suspend trading in a security for up to ten days. Securities exchanges such as the New York and American Stock Exchanges and Nasdaq may delay trading in a security at the beginning of a trading day or halt trading in a security during the trading day. More... |
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| The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act |
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| Corrupt payments to foreign officials to obtain or keep business are prohibited by the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. There are five elements of a violation of the provisions of the Act prohibiting bribery of foreign government officials. More... |
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| Corporate Criminal Liability |
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| Corporations were not initially held criminally responsible for corporate activities. A corporation was considered to be a legally fictitious entity, incapable of forming the mens rea necessary to commit a criminal act. The Supreme Court ultimately rejected this notion in 1909 in New York Central & Hudson River Railroad v. U.S. A railroad company employee paid rebates to shippers in violation of federal law. The court upheld the corporation's criminal conviction, finding no reason that corporations could not be held "responsible for and charged with the knowledge and purposes of their agents, acting within the authority conferred upon them." The Supreme Court concluded that criminal liability could be imputed to the corporation based on the benefit it received as a result of the criminal acts of its agents. The case and its progeny have essentially imported the doctrine of respondeat superior from tort law into the corporate criminal realm. A corporation may be convicted for its agent's unlawful acts when the agent acted within the scope of his or her actual or apparent authority. Another theory of corporate criminal liability is the "collective knowledge doctrine." As knowledge of criminal activity is often the scienter element of a particular crime, the requisite knowledge can be imputed to the corporation based on the collective knowledge of the directors and officers. More... |
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| Disclosure of Material Facts |
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| The duty of disclosure is a component of the duty of loyalty, but it also implicates the director's obligation to act with due care and in good faith. As part of the duty of care, a director should reveal all relevant material information that he possesses about a transaction to all who are in the position of making a decision about that transaction. The director has a duty to make an informed decision because it will ultimately affect the corporate interest and welfare. More... |
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